Matt Coon has acquitted himself well as the top officer in the Jamestown Fire Department over the past several years.

It’s almost too bad Coon won’t retire from public service having attained the title of fire chief. It’s something that shouldn’t happen to his successor.

City Council members on Monday voted to undo a change made more than two decades ago in the throes of a financial crisis that largely resembles what is happening today. Facing structural budget deficits, former Mayor Sam Teresi looked for cost savings anywhere he could – including eliminating or merging administrative positions in City Hall. One of those moves was an attempted streamlining of leadership and administration of public safety by creating the Director of Public Safety position. The police chief was designated as the public safety director and given a stipend, while the day-to-day operations of the fire department was given to the deputy fire chief.

At the time, there was some cost savings because the stipend for the public safety director was less than the increase a battalion chief received for stepping into the fire chief’s position.

But, over time it became readily apparent that the deputy fire chief was simply the fire chief. When there was an update on fire department staffing, it typically didn’t come from the public safety director – it came from the deputy fire chief. When there was a major fire, the update didn’t come from the public safety director, it came from the fire department. When it was time to talk about new equipment, the presentation didn’t come from the public safety director, it came from the deputy fire chief. It’s time for the city’s organizational chart to reflect reality – especially if there is a cost savings attached, which Mayor Kim Ecklund says will be the case.

And what we have found over the years is that police and fire service may both be classified as public safety, but they are separate worlds much like Neptune and Jupiter that require full-time leadership – and the full-time leadership of the fire department should be recognized as such.